Electric or manual breast pump???

[cupcake78]

Plannig on breast feeding but know that I will want to use a breast pump for DH to feed baby etc. Electric ones are very expensive, is a manual pump ok or is it worth the investment.

I use the Avent Isis manual pump and it's fine

I used the Avent Isis manual too. It was fine. I also learnt how to express without a pump - even cheaper

Hi,
A friend of mine was a midwife & breastfeeding consultant for Avent & was given many pumps to use including the Meleda manual & electric & Avent manual & electric & she kept going back to the Avent Isis manual as it was so good. I thought it was fab as well(just a normal mum me)
HTH

I expressed exclusively for over 4 months and have tried all sorts of pumps. If you are going to do one bottle a day for DH to feed the baby then the avent manual pump would be fine. I had the avent electric but wore out the motor after 3 months! I hired a hospital grade pump for the last month. It did both boobs at the same time which was a real time saver! I found the avent pumps (manual and electric) were kinder to my boobs than the hospital type pumps.

Good luck

you may be able to hire / borrow from you local NCT to try before you buy and see what suits you.

I also used hospital grade electric pump exclusively at first- very quick. However, once able to breastfeed, Avent Isis manual was fine for the occasional bottle or to relieve pressure. Travels well,too, and can be discreet as doesn't make as much noise as an electric.

Good, thanks for all your help nice to know that it is one less expense.

We got a brand new Avent Isis from our local baby cafe for £5.

www.thebabycafe.org/

Having said that I never got on with it, but I am on the small side and have heard since of other women who didn't master it who also had smallish breasts.

This time I've bought an Ameda Lactaline from an NCT nearly new sale for £10, boxed and with all its instructions and accessories

Have you thought about hiring one? Know a few people who have and found it much better for splashing out on one and then finding that you can't get to grips with it.

Wow mum2george you got a bargain with the Lactaline

I think it depends on how much you will want to use it, which will be difficult to assess until you are in the situation IYSWIM? Personally I need an electric pump and none of my friends have got on with hand pumps - too many hand muscles over-developing! If you're going to do it every day I would get an electric pump and an expressing bra so you can relax for 20 minutes (believe me, 20 minutes is as good as you're going to get relaxation-wise for a while, so make the most of it) If it's just for occasional use, a hand pump should do it.

I gather that the medela mini-electric goes very cheaply on ebay as a lot of people buy them but don't use them much. That in itself might be useful information to you.

Good luck with the baby and the BF